Subclinical myocardial dysfunction has been reported to occur earlyin SLE. The pathogenesis and prognosis of this finding is not clear. The study aims to search for biomarkers of subclinical myocardial dysfunction which may serve for early detection and better understanding of myocardial dysfunction pathogenesis in SLE.

Soluble ST2 and CXCL-10 levels were found to correlate with disease activity and accrued damage in SLE and may serve as sensitive biomarkers for early detection of diastolic dysfunction, independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors, supporting the hypothesis that disease activity has an independent role in the development of myocardial dysfunction in SLE.